State v. Beatty
| Decision Date | 13 June 1883 |
| Citation | 16 N.W. 149,61 Iowa 307 |
| Parties | STATE OF IOWA v. BEATTY. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from Delaware district court.
The defendant was charged with bastardy. The complaint was filed before the child was born. The woman was delivered of a dead child between the time of making the complaint and the trial of the cause. At the time of her sickness and the birth of the child, medical attention and other expenses were necessary, which were furnished at the expense of the county. There was a trial by jury, and the defendant was found guilty. The state asked judgment for the expense of the medical attention, and other lying-in expenses. The defendant claimed that, the child not having been born alive, no cause of action existed at the time of the trial, and that he should have been acquitted. The court overruled the claims of both parties, and rendered judgment against the defendant for the costs of the action, and both parties appeal.Smith McPherson, Atty. Gen., for the State.
Ed. P. Seeds and A. S. Blair, for defendant.
Section 4715 of the Code provides that “when any woman residing in any county of the state is delivered of a bastard child, or is pregnant with a child, which, if born alive, will be a bastard, complaint may be made in writing by any person to the district court of the county where she resides, stating that fact, and charging the proper person as being the father thereof. * * *”
Other sections of the statute provide that from the time of the complaint a lien shall be created upon the real property of the accused in the county, for the payment of any money and the performance of any order adjudged by the court. An attachment is also provided for. The penalty provided by law is found in section 4721, and is as follows: “If the accused be found guilty he shall be charged with the maintenance of the child, in such sum or sums as the court shall direct, with the costs of the suit. * * *” There being no liability except such as is created by statute, the question to be determined is, can the defendant be held liable for the lying-in expenses and medical attendance upon the mother, under the law, which charges him with the maintenance of the child? Maintenance is defined to be, “Aid, support, assistance; the support which one person, who is bound by law to do so, gives to another for his living.” 2 Bouv. Law Dict. 90. Now, as the child was not born alive, there never was any person for whose maintenance ...
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